In a massive show of support for peace in Sri Lanka, the largest ever group of Lankans abroad marched in London on May 17 demanding that Britain ban the Tigers. The marchers, headed by two Kandyan drummers, wended their way from the speaker's corner in Hyde Park to Trafalgar Square chanting "USA bans Tamil terror, Canada bans Tamil terror, Tony Blair do the same!''

Our London correspondent, Sujeeva Nivunhella, filed a report on the demonstration saying that High Commissioner S.K. Wickramasinghe who watched the march told him: "This is long overdue. I am happy that so many peace loving people got together and successfully showed their strength.'' The Daily News, in its May 22, issue gave six columns on the top of its front page to a colour picture of the march.

Thus it was a matter of no little surprise that this newspaper on Thursday carried an editorial titled the "London bombshell'' saying that peace living Tamil citizens "have quite rightly'' taken exception to references to "Tamil terrorism.'' Obviously the Lake House flagship has been moved by some yet unidentified force to look up and spit. Otherwise it would not have splashed the picture, banner and all, of the march on May 22 and less than a fortnight later editorialise on what it calls a "vituperative slogan.'' The paper, fortunately for itself, has conceded that no sensible person could quarrel with the demand that the LTTE be banned in Britain. But it asks whether the reference to "Tamil terrorism'' could not be construed to branding the entire Tamil community as terrorists.

It is quite obvious that the demonstrators were not seeking to tar all Tamils with the terrorist brush. The prominent banner in the very picture the Daily News splashed says in big clear letters: "Ban LTTE in UK. March against Tamil terrorism in Sri Lanka.'' Anybody reading that will clearly see that the organisers had no intention of damning all Tamils as terrorists. They were talking about the LTTE which was clearly identified in the main banner. And we ourselves have seen pictures published here and elsewhere showing many of the marchers clad in Tiger costumes. The demonstrators were making no secret about what kind of terrorist they were marching against.

It is perfectly true that all Tamils are not terrorists. But sad as it is, it must be said that all terrorists of the striped variety who have for too long drawn blood in what was once a green, pleasant and peaceful land, are Tamil. That is a fact that must be faced. That is why ordinary Tamil people have to suffer all kinds of privations at checkpoints, searches and other protective devices necessarily thrown to counter the constant threat of terror that stalks not only the theatre of war in the north and east but other parts of the country. Colombo has for long been most vulnerable and repeatedly hit. The vast majority of Tamils do desire peace as much as anybody else. But the situation created by the LTTE has resulted in their sometimes being subjected to much more intensive checking than others.

The London march was no mean feat and has been acknowledged as such by no less than High Commissioner Wickramasinghe himself. To gather as many as 7,000 people from all parts of Britain and attract others even from Continental Europe obviously required terrific organisation. The Daily News itself carried a letter from one of the activists behind the event saying they had agreed that neither individuals nor organisations would be named because personal and other rivalries would have made the unity needed to make the march what it was could otherwise not have been forged.

The LTTE certainly must have been most unhappy that Lankans abroad could muster such numbers to take their message to Tony Blair. It is therefore to be expected that the kind of letter that the Daily News published on Wednesday and quoted in Thursday's editorial would be written. A careful reading of that letter shows that nowhere does it condemn LTTE terror nor brand the Tigers of being the brutal terrorists the world accepts them to be. Soft words like "LTTE stance'', "Tamils keeping away from the LTTE'' etc. just won't do. A spade must be called a spade.

The marchers were not condemning all Tamils as terrorists as has been abundantly demonstrated. But the Daily News, by writing the kind of editorial it has done and using language like "blatantly racist'' and "vituperative'' has certainly not done any service to those who have soldiered long and hard to persuade London to close down the LTTE office there. A large number of expatriate Lankans worked tirelessly to make the march what it was. They have been rewarded by the government's chief mouthpiece calling on our High Commission in Britain "to take quick punitive action against the miscreants'' who are accused unfairly and unjustly to attempting "to fan the flames of racial hatred.'' All right thinking people would hang their heads in shame.